Former Chelsea coach Antonio Conte is taking ‘legal action’ against his former employers for delaying his dismissal and denying him the opportunity of applying for other top management jobs.

This comes after the British club sacked him last Friday, and replaced him with Maurizio Sarri. Conte was said to be ‘disgusted’ by the club’s conduct at the time.

According to The Times, Conte believes he ‘deserves to be compensated for loss of future earnings’, as well as the ‘damage caused by the club’s delay in sacking him’.

He is ‘furious’ that the Blues waited so long to remove him from his role, and is disappointed ‘at the way he has been treated’ and is demanding compensation on top of the £9 million salary that he is entitled to receive for the final year of his contract.

As Matt Hughes writes: ‘Conte’s legal team will argue that Chelsea have cost their client a year of his career, as all the top management jobs in Europe have been filled. Real Madrid are understood to have sounded out Conte after Zinédine Zidane left in May, while the Italy job was also available earlier in the summer. He did not pursue either option, though, and will claim he was committed to Chelsea.’